Still the Land of Dreams: 150 Million Want to Immigrate to U.S.

It has become a cliché for politicians who want to provide some sort of pathway to U.S. citizenship to the estimated 11.2 million illegal aliens living in the United States to say that these illegal aliens will need to “go to the back of the line” first.

However, there are already about 150 million adults living in countries around the world who would migrate to the United States if they could, according to a Gallup survey[2] released on Friday.

That does not count any children these 150 million would-be immigrants might want to bring with them to the United States.

To arrive at this figure, Gallup interviewed 452,199 people at least 15 years or older in 151 countries around the world from 2009 and 2011. Gallup asked: “Ideally, if you had the opportunity, would you like to move permanently to another country, or would you prefer to continue living in this country? To which country would you like to move?”

The 150 million people whom Gallup estimated would like to come to the United States includes 22 million Chinese, 15 million Nigerians, 10 million Indians, 8 million Bangladeshis, 7 million Brazilians, 5 million Filipinos, 5 million Japanese, 5 million Mexicans, and 3 million each from Vietnam, Kenya and the United Kingdom.